The worst-kept secret in gaming is no longer a secret. At the Xbox Games Showcase, Atlus announced that a full remake of Persona 4 is in development. It’s called Persona 4 Revival, and while there weren’t many details revealed — like when it’ll actually launch — we did get a brief teaser trailer. It’s coming to Xbox, PS5, and PC, and will be available for Game Pass subscribers.While it was just announced, the remake has seemed like a foregone conclusion for some time — and not just because several voice actors leaked its existence. Persona 3 received a similar remake last year with Persona 3 Reload, which was very well received, and in 2023 both Persona 3 and Persona 4 were re-released on modern platforms, introducing them to new audiences.Persona 4 — which added a murder mystery element to the long-running RPG series — was originally released on the PlayStation 2 in 2008, though it received a major boost with the enhanced PS Vita version Persona 4 Golden three years later.As for the next mainline entry in the franchise, Atlus wrote in a statement that “we are actively preparing for the future development of the Persona series as a studio.” So maybe we’ll finally hear about Persona 6 sometime soon.

AMD announced the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip at the beginning of the year, but up to this point, we've only seen it show up in one device — the new MSI Claw A8, which was shown off at Computex, but isn't available for sale yet. Despite the rollout of AMD's Z2 chips just starting to get underway, Team Red already has two new additions to the lineup. In addition to the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, Ryzen Z2, and Ryzen Z2 Go, AMD just revealed the Ryzen Z2 A at the bottom of the lineup, and the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme at the top.

Well, it finally arrived. We've heard whispers of a new Xbox handheld in the works, and the company has just confirmed what we were hoping. During an Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft revealed that it's partnering with ROG to create the "Xbox Ally," a handheld console for those on Team Green.

The new Xbox Ally X boots directly into a full-screen Xbox experience.Microsoft and Asus have just announced two ROG Xbox Ally devices that include a new full-screen Xbox experience for handhelds. After promising to combine “the best of Xbox and Windows together” for handhelds earlier this year, Microsoft is now revealing exactly how it is overhauling the Xbox app, Game Bar, and Windows itself to better compete with SteamOS.Microsoft has needed to respond to SteamOS ever since the Steam Deck launched three years ago, and it has steadily been tweaking its Xbox app and the Xbox Game Bar on Windows to make both more handheld-friendly. But there was always a bigger overhaul of Windows required, and we’re starting to see parts of that today.“The reality is that we’ve made tremendous progress on this over the last couple of years, and this is really the device that galvanized those teams and got everybody marching and working towards a moment that we’re just really excited to put into the hands of players,” says Roanne Sones, corporate vice president of gaming Devices and ecosystem at Xbox, in a briefing with The Verge.Microsoft demonstrated this handheld-friendly combination of Windows and Xbox to The Verge in a briefing earlier this week, but it was a virtual demo so we haven’t been able to try it fully yet. It all starts by booting directly into a new Xbox full-screen experience on these ROG Xbox Ally devices that focuses on the Xbox app and Game Bar, alongside being a launcher for all your PC games — yes even Steam ones.“We were able to take people who have been working on the Xbox OS for 20 years or more and have them work directly on the Windows codebase and start reimagining what that operating system looks like for this form factor,” explains Jason Beaumont, vice president of experiences at Xbox. “These two things combined led us to build a bunch of features.”The Xbox full-screen experience is very much the compact mode of the Xbox app taking full control of the ROG Xbox Ally devices, instead of the familiar Windows desktop and taskbar. “When the player boots into the full-screen experience there is a whole bunch of Windows stuff that doesn’t get loaded,” says Beaumont. “We’re not loading the desktop wallpaper, the taskbar, or a bunch of processes that are really designed around productivity scenarios for Windows.”You can still exit this full-screen mode and launch the full version of the Windows desktop, but by default it will by hidden away. “We’ve reduced many notifications and pop-ups, and we will continue to listen to feedback from players to make continued improvements,” says Sones.The Xbox app itself in full-screen mode looks very similar to what exists on Windows right now, except the library is now full of all of your PC games from Steam and other stores, alongside ones from Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass. Where it really gets interesting is the Game Bar.“We’ve made a lot of improvements to Game Bar over the last year, and really it was driving towards this device,” says Brianna Potvin, principal software engineering lead at Xbox. A short press on the Xbox button on the Xbox Ally devices brings up the Game Bar interface, and you can use this to access device settings like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, Asus’ Command Center interface, and even Microsoft’s new Gaming Copilot. If you long press on the Xbox button then you’ll even get a more handheld-friendly task switcher, which lets you alt+tab between apps and games using the controller.I’ll need to try this new interface fully to really get a feel for the Windows changes here, but Microsoft is promising that this isn’t just lipstick on top of Windows. “This isn’t surface-level changes, we’ve made significant improvements,” says Potvin. “Some of our early testing with the components we’ve turned off in Windows, we get about 2GB of memory going back to the games while running in the full-screen experience.”That’s a good step to improve the performance of Windows on handhelds, but one of the big pieces of feedback around the handheld experience is the sleep situation where Windows-powered devices often draw far too much battery life when they’re idle.“If you’re booting your device into the full-screen experience and you’re putting it down and it’s going to sleep, it draws one third of the idle power draw than if it was booting the same device into the [Windows] desktop experience,” claims Potvin. Microsoft is still focused on battery life and power efficiency for this full-screen mode, so we might even see further improvements before devices ship later this year. Microsoft has also made improvements to the Windows lockscreen, so you can now use a controller to log in using a PIN code, or navigate around in this part of Windows. This updated Xbox app will now work as a launcher for all your PC games, but you’ll still be able to interact with Windows apps and those other launchers freely in this full-screen handheld experience. Sones says Microsoft is “working closely with leading storefronts to have them optimize their full screen experience,” to make it easy for everyone to play a full library of PC games from Steam, Epic Games Store, and elsewhere.“The aggregated gaming library within Xbox on PC will be available for all Windows 11 devices,” says Sones, so you’ll soon be able to see all of your Steam games within the Xbox app on any PC.Microsoft is also creating its own version of Valve’s Steam Deck verified program, allowing you to see what games are optimized for handhelds like the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. You’ll also be able to access your full Xbox console library on handhelds thanks to either Xbox Cloud Gaming or Remote Play from an Xbox console, but most console games won’t play natively unless there’s a PC version or they’re part of Xbox Play Anywhere.The best part of all these Windows changes is that you won’t necessarily need a new device to benefit from them. “The Xbox full-screen experience will first come to the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X, and our next focus will be updating the in-market ROG Ally and the ROG Ally X,” says Sones. “Similar full-screen Xbox experiences will be rolling out to other Windows handhelds, starting next year.”Valve is also supporting SteamOS on the ROG Ally, so we should be able to compare Valve and Microsoft’s handheld operating systems on the same hardware soon. We don’t yet know if Microsoft has done enough to stop other PC makers from being tempted over to SteamOS like Lenovo has, but Microsoft’s efforts are really setting up a battle between Windows and Linux for the future of handheld gaming PCs.

Oh dear. Well, it's that time again, folks. We've been given the tiniest, slither-iest bit of hope that Silksong (or, if you know it by its pet name, "Skong") will come out soon. No, there's no release date. No, they didn't even give us a month. But by goodness, they gave us a release window for the end of the year, and now I'm donning a clown wig and hoping it comes true.

For years, Obsidian has been my digital brain, the central hub for all my notes, thoughts, and research. Its powerful linking capabilities and local-first approach have made it a crucial part of my workflow. While Obsidian comes with robust search, tags, and graph view, it requires manual efforts to extract valuable information from my vaults. Here is where I came across Google’s AI-powered NotebookLM tool and decided to hook it up with Obsidian.

Two years ago, we published a list of our favorite summer gear — and it’s time to do it again! Things can get a little tense out there in the world, so sometimes you have to pause and take a breath. We’re looking forward to taking some time for ourselves by hiking, biking, or hanging out and listening to our favorite tunes, maybe accompanied by some soft-serve ice cream to cool things down. We’ve asked our staff about the gadgets they plan to use this summer to help get away and have fun. Here’s what some of them recommend.There’s nothing that brings a smile to my family’s faces faster than soft-serve ice cream. It’s definitely something we bond over, although usually it’s when we’re on the way back from the beach or as an after-dinner treat while on vacation. So, when I got a chance to try the new Ninja Swirl Creami at home, I jumped on it. An ice-cream maker and soft-serve dispenser in one, the Ninja makes ice cream on one side and then dollops it out in soft-serve form on the other. Unlike my previous attempts at making homemade frozen treats from scratch with my KitchenAid stand mixer, the Ninja makes this super easy to do. (You still need to be patient as it has to freeze for 24 hours.) But the real bonus — and what made this a big hit in my house — is that you can stick store-bought ice cream into it and turn it into soft-serve in seconds; no waiting required, just endless sundae bowls and swirl cones on tap for summer hangouts. The only downside (other than price) is that we only got two decent-sized soft-serve cones out of each 16-oz pint container. Luckily, it comes with two containers, which helped keep the ice cream flowing.I’ve also enjoyed creating unusual frozen delights in the Ninja. Inspired by a very active Reddit forum, we tried frozen tomato soup (really yummy), fresh watermelon mixed with condensed milk (ah-ma-zing), and my son’s morning protein smoothies in frozen form — the perfect way to prep him for a day of lifeguarding at the local pool. – Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, smart home reviewerAs a pasty redhead from a large ginger family, I relish every opportunity to nag about the importance of wearing sunscreen — especially when the summer heat is pounding and everyone starts getting their fleshy bits out. If you’re someone who avoids applying the stuff because it makes your hands feel gross, then allow me to remove that excuse for you: sunscreen applicators are a convenient and mess-free solution that can help you protect your skin without itching to wipe your greasy hands on clothes or sandy towels.They’re great for applying sunscreen to your kids, too. The Solar Buddies version I use has a big handle, spongy applicator, and a roller dispenser that ensures even small hands have a good grip and don’t look like they’ve dunked themselves in frosting. You just have to fill them with your sunscreen of choice, giving some added flexibility around the brand and SPF (but please, please consider sticking with a factor of 50 plus). Because the applicator screws tightly closed, it can also help prevent any explosions from occurring in your bag compared to the usual squeeze bottles. Nobody likes a sunscreen sandwich. — Jess Weatherbed, news writerIf you’re itching to get out on a bike ride even when it’s 85-plus degrees, you don’t want to be stuck without an adequate supply of water. I only have room for one drink holder on my bike, so I’ve found that it’s just far more convenient to carry water on my back with the aptly named CamelBak Hydrobak hydration pack. It’s a lightweight backpack that holds up to 1.5 liters of water, which it says is enough for a two-hour bike ride. The backpack also comes with a handy straw that you just lift up and drink from, preventing you from having to stop and drink from your water bottle (unless you’re coordinated enough to take a sip while riding, which I am not). It also keeps your water relatively cool even when the sun is beating down your back.Aside from storing water, there’s a zipper pocket where you can store car keys, your ID, and other small items. It’s not just ideal for biking, either. Many people use the CamelBak Hydrobak on long hikes, runs, and even for music festivals. — Emma Roth, news writer I try to bring a Bluetooth speaker everywhere with me when the weather’s good. A pool party, a park day, a golf outing, a hang on the back patio — it’s all better with music! There are obviously lots of good speakers out there, but for me the UE Wonderboom 4 is the perfect one. It’s only $100, it’s small but loud enough to work just about anywhere, its battery lasts all day and then some, it’s waterproof, and it floats. (All the colors look nice, by the way, but… get the blue one.) There are fancier speakers with more features, and the $200 Megaboom does sound a lot better, but I keep a Wonderboom in my trunk, and it has made me the party hero more times than I can count. — David Pierce, editor-at-largeThe summer months mean more family walks, hikes, and time outdoors, and one of my favorite ways of exercising in the process is rucking. You don’t need a fancy GoRuck to go rucking; just throw as much weight as you want to carry into any sturdy backpack that feels good on you. But, while the Ruckers may be a little over-the-top on their “tacticool” looks for some folks, they are incredibly well made and nicely designed for weighted walks or even crossfit-style workouts. — Antonio G. Di Benedetto, reviewerEver since I got scolded at urgent care (turns out the mysterious shooting pain in the back of my head was due to dehydration), this 40-oz flask has rarely left my side. It was a gift from a friend who works outside under the Los Angeles sun all year long, so trust her experience. This hefty bottle fits perfectly into my life — although not in any of the gym equipment cup holders, due to its generous girth (holder-friendly shapes are also available). I am to consume roughly two of these bottles’ worth of water daily, particularly when it gets hot in the summertime. Aside from being a sturdy receptacle, it really is a thermos, so it keeps my water cold for hours. — Marina Galperina, senior tech editorFor years, a close friend and I would go birding together, and one of our favorite late spring treks was to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania to observe the yearly raptor migration. Unfortunately, my friend never had strong ankles, and as the years passed, the trek up and down the mountain became more difficult. After she had one bad slip, I went to a local REI store and bought her a lightweight walking pole. She loved it. It came with a rubber tip for flat surfaces like sidewalks and a pointed tip for muddy or rocky terrain. It was lightweight and adjustable, and it had a comfortable grip. It could be quickly compressed and stored in her bag or the trunk of her car, and then expanded and used for hiking or just strolling. It was, she once told me, the most useful birthday gift I ever gave her. The walking pole I bought her is no longer available, but Leki’s Legend Black Carbon one is pretty close.  — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editorI never thought I’d marvel at the design and engineering of a blanket until I tried this one from Matador. Made from a waterproof and surprisingly durable fabric given how thin it is, the Pocket Blanket is large enough to accommodate up to four adults when unfurled but folds up into its own built-in storage bag that’s about the size of a deck of cards. Refolding the Pocket Blanket is easy, thanks to a subtle printed pattern showing where all the fold lines should be, and it can be secured to the ground using either built-in metal corner stakes or small pockets that can be filled and weighed down with sand. We rarely leave the house without at least one slipped into a bag, and keep extras in the glove boxes of our cars. — Andrew Liszewski, senior reporterMy biggest deterrent to spending some time outside are bugs, mosquitos specifically. I wish they’d bug off. They have me looking like I’m doing interpretive dancing to avoid being poked. Thankfully, a gadget that I got last year has made it so that I don’t need to be (as) protective of my exposed skin. Thermacell makes rechargeable and refillable mosquito repellers. I got the E-Series model, which creates a safe zone where you likely won’t be bitten. It lasts a little over five hours per charge, meaning I get more than one use out of it before needing to charge it again. Just be sure not to use it in an environment where there isn’t proper ventilation; Thermacell notes that its ingredients shouldn’t be a concern for people or pets, but I don’t want too much insecticide around my loved ones — or my food. — Cameron Faulkner, commerce editor

When OnePlus first introduced its tablet to the world, it impressed with high-end specs at an affordable price. Now, with the OnePlus Pad 3, the company is refining that formula. This latest model brings modest hardware upgrades - including a larger, sharper display, a bigger battery, and an updated smart keyboard - along with meaningful software improvements that help it inch closer to rivals like Samsung and Apple. Yet the verdict remains largely the same: it's an excellent Android tablet for entertainment, and just okay for light productivity. But at $699.99, $150 more than the original, it raises the question: does it still offer the same value? A year ago, my answer might've been no. But in today's climate of tariffs and rising costs across the board, the Pad 3 still holds its own - especially against similarly specced competitors like the $749.99 Galaxy Tab S10 FE. Whether it's the right buy for you ultimately depends on what you want out of your tablet.The OnePlus Pad 3 features a larger 13.2-inch LCD display with a slightly sharper 3392 x 2400 resolution, making movies and shows look more vibrant. It's housed in a slimmer, flatter aluminum frame that's easier to carr …Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft and Asus have been working together over the past year to create not one, but two new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds. Both of these Xbox Ally devices, part of the Project Kennan effort I reported on earlier this year, include a new full-screen Xbox experience on Windows that’s designed to be more handheld-friendly and hide away the complexity of Windows to focus on gaming instead.The white ROG Xbox Ally is designed for 720p gaming, and the more powerful black ROG Xbox Ally X targets 900p to 1080p gaming on the go. Like the existing ROG Ally and Ally X, the new Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X share the same 7-inch 1080p screen, complete with a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR support.The Xbox Ally uses a previously unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2 A chip, combined with 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512GB of M.2 2280 SSD storage. The Xbox Ally X upgrades the chip to AMD’s Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory, and a 1TB M.2 2280 SSD.All of these specs make them very similar to Asus’ existing Windows-powered handheld gaming PCs at heart, but there are some much-needed changes to the software side that could make the Windows handheld experience a lot better.“We know that to take this handheld experience to the next level, we cannot do this alone,” says Shawn Yen, vice president of consumer at Asus, in a briefing with The Verge, admitting that some gamers have found it “frustrating and confusing” to navigate Windows with joysticks and button until now.Microsoft and Asus have been collaborating closely on these two new Xbox Ally devices over the past year, and Yen says Microsoft and Asus “share a joint obsession” on these new handhelds.That joint obsession includes Microsoft making good on its promise to combine “the best of Xbox and Windows together,” thanks to a new Xbox full-screen experience on Windows that’s designed specifically for handhelds. Not only can the Xbox Ally devices boot directly to this interface, but the companies claim you can easily get back to it using a new dedicated Xbox button on these handhelds, much like an Xbox console.Microsoft doesn’t load the full Windows desktop or a bunch of background processes in this full-screen Xbox experience, putting Windows firmly in the background and freeing up more memory for games. Instead, you launch straight into the Xbox PC app, which includes all of your PC games from the Microsoft Store, Battle.net, and what Microsoft calls “other leading storefronts.”This aggregated gaming library means you’ll see games from Xbox, Game Pass, and all your PC games installed from Steam, Epic Games Store, and elsewhere in a single interface, much like what the GOG launcher offers. Earlier this week, we started seeing parts of this unified library appear in the Xbox PC app, and Microsoft says you’ll be able to access your full Xbox console library through Xbox Cloud Gaming or Remote Play to an Xbox console.The idea is that you should be able to seamlessly launch any game you own, whether it’s actually installed on your handheld, streaming from your Xbox Series X over home Wi-Fi, or streaming from the cloud, though we have yet to try that ourselves. Microsoft has also made some additional tweaks to the Xbox PC app and Game Bar to make this all more handheld-friendly, including the ability to log in via the Windows lockscreen with your controller, no touchscreen taps required. You’ll also be able to use this handheld-friendly Game Bar interface to easily launch apps like Discord, or alt-tab between apps and games, or adjust settings without having to fiddle with the touchscreen. You can read all about all the Windows changes in my deep dive look at this new Xbox PC experience right here.These two Xbox Ally devices also have Xbox-like contoured grips. It’s as if Microsoft and Asus have taken an Xbox controller and squeezed a screen between the grips, similar to what Sony did with its PlayStation Portal. The grips have been designed like this to make it easier to wrap your hands around the entire controls, so you access all the buttons and triggers.The Xbox Ally X even has impulse triggers like all modern Xbox controllers, so you’ll feel things like terrain of roads during racing games or the impact of bullets in a shooter, all thanks to the haptics on the triggers. Asus is also using a USB-C 4 connector that supports Thunderbolt 4 on the more powerful Xbox Ally X, offering the possibility of connecting a powerful external GPU to it, alongside a single USB-C 3.2 port and a UHS-II microSD card reader. The Xbox Ally uses two USB-C 3.2 ports instead.Microsoft and Asus aren’t providing any benchmarks or a real sense of performance for these handhelds yet, and both use chips we haven’t tested. But interestingly, they appear to be focusing on battery life this time around. “For this generation the most important thing to us is efficiency. Efficiency is our new superpower,” says Yen. “The games will be able to play cooler and quieter, and at the same time offer you a longer battery life for gameplay.” AMD told us in January that the Z2 Extreme would be both its most powerful and most efficient handheld chip yet, while the Z2 A is rumored to be based on the Steam Deck’s less powerful but battery-sipping Van Gogh-based chip.Importantly, the Xbox Ally is using a 60Wh battery, 50 percent larger than the pack that shipped in the original ROG Ally, while the more powerful Xbox Ally X uses an 80Wh battery, tied with the Ally X and the largest you can find in a handheld today. The Windows tweaks may also improve battery, with Microsoft claiming it’s already seeing one-third of the drain when these Xbox Full Screen Experience systems are idle and asleep.If you want extra performance, you’ll also be able to dock these Xbox Ally devices to Asus’ XG mobile device that offers up an RTX 5090 laptop GPU to overhaul how games play on these handheld devices.These new Xbox Ally handhelds will launch during the holiday season later this year, and Microsoft and Asus are planning to share pricing and preorder information in the coming months.

When you first set up Home Assistant, it is easy to focus on automation and device control. But as I spent more time with it, I kept stumbling across small features that quietly save me time and effort every single day. These are not always the headline-grabbing functions, but once you start using them, you will wonder how you managed without them.

Game Freak, perhaps best known for its work on the Pokémon franchise, is working on a new action RPG called Beast of Reincarnation that will launch sometime in 2026. It’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S.In the game, you play as Emma, who will be accompanied by a canine friend. “Survive a journey across an ominous, ever-changing world where dangerous forests can erupt in the wasteland,” according to the description from a new trailer shown at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025. “As Emma and Koo push deeper into the unknown, their bond strengthens—and with it, strange powers bloom.”The description also says the RPG is built around “demanding, technical combat,” and based on the trailer, that sure appears to be the case — it looks thrilling.Beast of Reincarnation was originally announced as Project Bloom, according to an emailed press release. The game was previously set to be published by Take-Two’s Private Division label, but Take-Two sold that label last year. Beast of Reincarnation is now being published by Fictions.Update, June 8th: Added what platforms the game will be available on and confirmation that the game is what was once known as Project Bloom.

When Xiaomi and Realme both rocked up to February's Mobile World Congress with concept smartphones featuring attachable camera lenses, Vivo's executives must have had a quiet chuckle knowing they were ready to launch the real thing just two months later.Its flagship X200 Ultra went on sale in China a few weeks ago. Even by itself, it's probably the best camera phone in the world right now, but it's made even better by a unique accessory: a custom-made 2.35x telephoto extender lens, which attaches to the phone's existing 3.7x telephoto for a total of 8.7x optical zoom, or the equivalent of a 200mm lens. It sounds (and looks) absurd, but it's arguably a natural move for Vivo, which has built its brand around a long-running partnership with Zeiss and a growing reputation for crafting some of the best camera systems in any Android phone.From a design standpoint, Vivo has split the difference between the two concepts I saw in Barcelona earlier this year. Realme imagined attaching full-size DSLR lenses on a phone's existing camera, and Xiaomi pitched a custom, compact lens with its own built-in sensor that could magnetically snap onto a phone's back.Vivo echoed Xiaomi in cre …Read the full story at The Verge.